A. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of telephones and more particularly to a programmable phone has a means for performing complex operations with the phone with a single key press.
B. Description of Related Art
Telephones used in businesses today may have one or more programmable buttons that provide features such as a speed dial for frequently called phone numbers. Examples of such phones are the 3Com NBX 3102 telephone from 3Com Corporation, the assignee of the present invention. Such phones now are beginning to support Voice over Internet Protocol networks (VoIP) technology and other advanced services and features. The 3Com NBX 3102 is one such phone. Other examples of business phones in the state of the art are the Avaya 4600 Series IP Telephones and the Cisco Systems IP Phones having model numbers 7940, 7960 and the 7970G.
Despite the advances in the telephony art and in particular in business telephones, complex operations using the telephone still require the user to provide multiple key press operations in order for the operations to execute. For example, consider a phone that functions as a switchboard that is answered by a receptionist. To transfer the call to party A, he or she may have to press the TRANSFER key and then the extension key for the person to whom the call should be transferred. As another example, a user may want to establish a conference call with a particular party, and to establish the conference call they may have to press the CONFERENCE key, dial the extension, and press CONFERENCE again. In these circumstances, the phones still require the use to press a function key (CONFERENCE, TRANSFER, VOICE MAIL TRANSFER, etc.), in addition to an extension button or, worse yet, one or more digits.
User interface devices for telephones and related equipment are described in Voois, U.S. Pat. No. 6,215,515; Chavez, Jr., U.S. Pat. No. 6,125,285; and Grant et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,618,039. The art has lacked a telephone that provides universal programming capability together with one-touch replay of any arbitrary combination of function, extension, digit or other key strokes. This invention meets that need.